Completing an invoice blocked by missing mandatory data in SamBooks
8 min read
An invoice stays "Draft" until it has every piece of data e-invoicing requires: SamBooks lists them one by one in a panel, split between "this invoice" and "your company." Here's how to read it and what to do about each one.
What this is for
On the detail page of an invoice in "Draft" status, instead of the send button you'll find the "Mandatory data missing for e-invoicing" panel, split into two distinct lists: "Missing on this invoice:" (data specific to this document) and "Missing from your company data:" (setup data, valid for every invoice until you fix it). The distinction matters: the first list you fix from this invoice, the second you fix once in Settings and it's fixed for good.
Before you start
Completing the data requires a role with write permissions on invoicing (Manager or Administrative).
How to do it, step by step
1. Read what's missing on the invoice
In the "Missing on this invoice:" list, you may find, in SamBooks' exact wording: "Customer's name or first and last name," "Customer's VAT number or tax code," "Customer's address," "Customer's postal code," "Customer's city," "Customer's province" (only for Italian customers), "Customer's country," "At least one line," "Description on every line."
2. Complete the customer's data from the invoice's customer box
This data lives on the customer's record, not on the document itself: open the customer box on the invoice, edit the record from there (address, postal code, city, province, tax identifier), and save. The changes also stay in the customer directory for future invoices to the same customer.
3. Read what's missing from your company data
In the "Missing from your company data:" list, you may find: "Company VAT number," "Company name," "Company tax regime," "Registered office address," "Registered office postal code," "Registered office city," "Registered office province," "Registered office country." Below this list you'll find the "Go to Company settings" link, which takes you straight there.
4. The IBAN gap has two different variants, with two different fixes
If something related to bank payment is missing, the panel shows a dedicated box with one of these two texts, depending on the actual cause:
- if a cash/bank account is already linked to the invoice but has no IBAN on file: "The cash account linked to this invoice doesn't have an IBAN on file yet. Open the account under Settings → Banking and add the IBAN — if it's a Stripe/PSP account or otherwise non-bank account, an IBAN often isn't available: in that case, choose a different bank account when creating the invoice."
- if the payment terms have no account linked at all: "A cash account with an IBAN (or, for direct debit, the customer's IBAN) is missing from the payment terms. Go to Settings → Banking, register an account with an IBAN, and select it on the invoice."
In both cases you'll find the "Go to Banking" link.
5. Check that the status updates itself after the fix
There's no "Recalculate" or "Promote" button: as soon as you save the invoice (or the linked customer record) with all the required data in place, SamBooks recalculates completeness on its own and the invoice moves from "Draft" to "Ready" automatically, with nothing more to do. If something's still missing, the panel stays visible with the updated list.
6. Know that the "Ready" badge isn't always the final word
In a known edge case, an invoice can show the "Ready" badge even though, underneath, a payment detail isn't actually complete anymore: this happens when the status was calculated at an earlier point and the underlying data changed without any new edit to the invoice forcing a recalculation. In that case, sending to SDI is still blocked by a server-side safety check at the moment of transmission — there's no risk of an incomplete document going out — but the block message you see at that point is more technical and doesn't repeat the tidy panel covered here.
If something goes wrong
- I added the IBAN to the account but the panel still shows the same warning: an invoice's payment data is a snapshot taken at creation time; fixing the account afterward doesn't automatically update an invoice already created with that account linked. Try reopening the invoice and saving it again; if the gap persists, the data may be frozen on that specific document.
- I need to fix the payment account on a draft already blocked by the IBAN gap: press "Edit" on the invoice — this works on any invoice not yet sent to SDI, so "Draft" or "Ready" — and the payments section is there too, not only at creation. One thing to know: in edit mode the schedule already on the document isn't shown, and adding even a single instalment replaces the entire payment plan. So don't just add the new instalment: re-enter every instalment, with the correct account selected on each. On save, SamBooks regenerates the due dates from that data. Once the invoice has been sent to SDI, this path is no longer available: it's corrected only with a credit note.
- The panel doesn't flag anything missing, but sending still fails with a technical error about the file: this can happen when the problem isn't the absence of a field but an invalid structure in it (typically a company data field, like the VAT number). Today there's no settings page to fix that data after the company was registered: if this happens to you, it's a known limitation — not something you can fix yourself in the app.
- A "wrong" default account keeps getting proposed on new invoices: if the company has a non-bank cash account set as the default, invoices with bank payment can inherit it automatically and end up without an IBAN with no obvious cause shown in the UI. Check which account is marked as default and, if it isn't a bank account with an IBAN, pick a different one directly when creating the invoice.
Ask Sam
You can ask Sam to complete the missing data on an invoice or a customer — for example, "add the address for customer Rossi: Via Roma 1, 20100 Milano MI" — with the same result as editing it by hand. Sam reads the same panel you see and can tell you exactly what's missing before you even open the detail page.
Frequently asked questions
I can't send the invoice to SDI: why? Because it's still in "Draft" status: open the detail page and read the "Mandatory data missing for e-invoicing" panel, complete what it lists, and the status switches to "Ready" on its own.
Why does the invoice stay in draft? At least one required field is missing, either on the invoice itself or in your company data: the panel on the detail page tells you exactly which, in two separate lists.
What does "mandatory data missing" mean? The fields e-invoicing always requires: customer data (name, tax identifier, full address), at least one line with a description, and for bank payment, an account with an IBAN.
It tells me the IBAN is missing but I've added it: why does it keep saying that? If you added the IBAN to the account AFTER creating the invoice, the invoice's payment data may still reflect the moment it was created: try saving the invoice again; if the gap persists, it may be frozen on that specific document.
The account linked to the invoice has no IBAN: what do I do? The panel flags it with a dedicated box and a direct link to fix it on the account, or you can choose a different account when creating the invoice if the linked one isn't a bank account.
The customer's province is missing: what do I do? Open the customer box on the invoice, complete the record with the province (plus address/postal code/city if those are missing too), and save: the invoice recalculates itself.
The "Send to SDI" button doesn't show up: why? Because the invoice is still "Draft": the send button only appears once the status switches to "Ready," after all mandatory data is complete.
How do I complete an incomplete invoice? Follow the panel's list point by point: customer data is fixed from the invoice's customer box, company data from Company settings (direct link in the panel).
It asks for the company's tax regime: where do I set that? It's one of the fields the panel lists under "Missing from your company data": press the "Go to Company settings" link below the list.
I have a Stripe account with no IBAN and can't invoice: what do I do? A non-bank account (like a Stripe balance) will never have an IBAN: if that's the one proposed by default on the invoice, choose a bank account with an IBAN on file instead when creating it.
How do I make the invoice become ready? Complete every point listed in the panel: as soon as nothing's missing anymore, SamBooks moves it to "Ready" on its own, with no separate confirmation button.
Foreign customer with no postal code: can I still invoice? The panel lists postal code and province as fields distinct from the address; for a non-Italian customer the province isn't required, but check which fields the panel still lists as missing before sending.